who is your website talking to?

Ensuring that your website communicates the right information to potential customers can be a critical component of your company's success in terms of both revenue and exposure. But do you know who your website actually talks to?

 

Get inside their heads and understand your audience. Just as your sales people adapt themselves in real time to pitch to different customer profiles, your website needs to address these personas too. The beginning of any website development project should be to determine what types of people will go to your website, what their needs are likely to be, and what their buying behaviours will be.

 

Develop a persona. To get into the customer's mindset, you develop customer personas that include a problem that your customers might be having if they are looking for your products or services. One of the best ways to do this is to harness the power of persona. What is the difference between customer profiles and a persona? Customer profiles break your potential customers into general groups in obvious ways, for example: IT Network Administrators for large insurance companies. Customer personas, unlike customer profiles, are not simply about what demographic groups will be targeted in the current direct mail campaign, they take a customer profile to the next logical step - they put a name, a face, a life, and a personality to a fictional character constructed to represent the needs of a whole range of real users.

 

Tell your web designer who your customers are. Web designers are creative guys and can create a persona that can be used to make decisions about design, how you market your product or service online and how your website talks to potential customer. By being aware of the customer's mindset, you can write your copy and plan your navigation to explain the benefits of your products as they relate to the customer's current problem, rather than just rattling off a list of features.

 

Every answer that you leave for customers on your website is a point of website conversion. These are the points during a website visit when the visitor can decide to either move further down the buying path or leave the website altogether. Remember, on the Internet the competition is just one click away… In order to improve your website conversion and get your visitors to take that very next step, you typically have to do two things: 1) show them how that action fits in with their own needs and objectives, and 2) give them clear directions. A website that tells them what they want to know and answers any questions they may have can go a long way towards getting your potential customers to feel confident about your products and services.

 

The Internet is an interactive medium; by blending science, usability and marketing principles, your website can become one of the most profitable members of your sales team – except your website is working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and it doesn’t even need health insurance.

 

in:fact

1. The average person spends 8 secs scanning the front page of a newspaper before deciding whether they want to read it. On the web it's only 4 secs.

2. 80% of all people who use the internet, use search engines as their primary way to look for information.

3. The average British internet user spends 164 minutes online each day for personal use, compared to 148 minutes spent watching TV.

 

How to create a 'persona'

1. Sketch out a typical persona. Talk to friends and family to find out if anyone fits your typical target audience as well as stakeholders in your company.

2. Look at your competition. Sometimes your competition uses certain images that appeal to a certain persona (that is if they get it right who their typical persona is…).

3. Write up a bio about your typical web persona and maybe attach a picture that represents your persona and a name. Transform your audience into real human beings.

4. Breathe life into your persona.

-Stereo-types: build personal attributes.

-Demographic: age, gender, education, occupation; and for B2B, company size, position in buying unit.

-Psychographic: goals, motivation.

-Webographics: web experience, usage location (home or work), usage platform (broadband or dial-up), usage frequency, typical favourite sites.

-Design targets: how to convey your company as a brand.

-Website usage scenarios: Information seeking scenario (leads to site registration), Purchase scenario - new customer (leads to sale), Purchase scenario - existing customer (leads to sale).

5. If you have a really diverse target audience – try and be more specific about the different people involved, group them, then prioritise your list and design your persona around them.

 

If you need any help with your marketing or web design, please do not hesitate to ask, even if it's just some advice you need. Simplicity would be happy to help. Interested to learn how we can help? View our services; or simply contact us to discuss how we can help.

 

Download PDF version of this article (click here)

Who? Simplicity is a small web design and creative marketing company. For whom? We specialise in working with small, medium and start-up businesses. Why? Small feet, big shoes; just because you’re a small business does not mean you don’t need to get your message out there in a big way. What’s it all about? We help make your marketing and design matter, be known, be heard, be found; and make the pieces fit. It's not just about your products and sevices, it's about the whole experience. What’s the difference? Personal. We strongly believe in the personal approach to doing business. Creative. We fuse strategy & creativity into one compelling voice. No fuzz. We are practical & hands-on; passionate about what we do; and practice what we preach. Focus. We specialise in working with small companies and start-ups. Ideas. Ideas are the currency of our business. Ideas can have the power to change minds, transform brands and even make a difference to the bottom line. How much? Because we’re a small company without the high set-up costs of larger marketing firms and the fancy London postcode, we don’t charge London rates and are able to pass on some cost savings to our clients. What’s in the mix? [The Roadmap] Marketing Planning & Strategy: Get your marketing up and running. [Image Works] Branding & Brand Identity: Define who you are, what you can see, touch, feel, hear and watch. [A Box Of Chocolates] Demand Generation & Integrated Marketing Campaigns: Integrated marketing in harmony & style. The ideal blend of marketing initiatives. [The Bigger Picture] Website Design: Every website tells a story. Let your website do the work for you. [A Refreshing Change] Website Re-Design: Give your website an inspiring facelift. [The Perfect Pitch] Collateral Design: You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. What is the concept? Simplexity. The concept behind Simplicity is to simplify complex matters and make the pieces fit. Simplicity, where ideas come to life.